Balancing means for rotating container



Aug. 28, 1956 A. H. DE MOSS 2,760,383

BALANCING MEANS FOR ROTATING CONTAINER Filed April 24, I953 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII;

IINVENTOR. fl/berf H. De/Voss A TTOR/VL'YS United States Patent O BALANCING MEANS FOR ROTATING CONTAINER Albert H. De Moss, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to The American Laundry Machinery Company, (Iincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application April 24, 1953, Serial No. 350,944 4 Claims. (Cl. 74-573) This invention relates to improvements in balancing means for rotating containers, and more particularly to a simple means for bringing a gyrating body, such as a basket or drum of an extractor or a washer-extractor, into substantial balance while the body is rotating.

One of the objects of the present invention is to halance a rotating drum or basket by utilizing the principle of adding a fluid Weight to one or more pockets on the lighter side of the container While it is rotating so as to re-establish a balanced condition. This principle is not broadly new but the present invention injects liquid in jet form from fixed jets into counterbalance pocket or pockets equidistant from the center of the drum, and does not involve elaborate means for routing the liquid into the proper pocket, necessitating hollow gudgeons, conduits, and seals, and requiring no selector or electrical controls such as are commonly found in the prior art.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be disclosed in the accompanying drawings, specification and the essential features thereof are summarized in the appended claims.

In the drawings,

*Fig. 1 is a plan view, partly in section, of apparatus embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1 but With the drum or basket in eccentric position, as would occur during unbalanced rotation; while Fig. 3 is a fragmental view similar to the upper left hand portion of Fig. 1 showing a modification.

I have chosen to illustrate my invention in simple and conventional form so as to emphasize the main idea and the main principles involved, as various details could be modified while utilizing my invention.

-An outer shell or tub of conventional form is mounted on suitable supporting structure 11. The'usua-l opening 10a in the front vertical wall is providedfor the introduction of clothes into the drum and a closing door 10b is provided hinged to the tub at 1-2. A rotatable, perforated work container or drum 13 is mounted for rotation within the housing 18' and supported in cantilever fashion from the driving shaft 14 which is mounted by means of a suitable bearing 15 in one of the wallsof the housing 10. The flanges 15a rigid with the bearing shell aid in mounting the bearing on the housing wall. Further support is given by the outrigger 16. The bearing 15 may have a resilient support so as to more readily accommodate itself to unbalanced rotation of the basket or drum 18. Such a resilient support is shownas a heavy rubber gasket 17. The shaft 14' is rigidly connected to the drum by means of theflange l14a attached to the vertical rear Wall 13a of the drum; The

shaft 154 may be driven in any well-known manner, that I illustrated being a V-belt connection 18' from the pulley 19 on shaft 14 to a pulley 20 which in turn is driven b'ya motor 21'.

The drum 13 has-an virnperforate rear wall 13a; mencentral opening 130 which is opposite the door 10b for Patented Aug. 28, 1956 the introduction of wet clothing into the drum. Where the is used as an extractor, the cylindrical wall thereof between the vertical walls 13a and 13b is perforated as shown at 13d so that water may be thrown out of the clothes centrifugally. The drum may also be provided with work-tumbling ribs, not shown, attached to the cylindrical wall of the drum and extending substantially the full axial length thereof.

The structure whereby the drum is balanced according to my invention is located at one end of the basket either on the wall 13a or 1311. In the present embodirn'ent, it is shown located on the front wall 13b. This structure is rigidly connected with the drum 1'3 and for simplicity is shown integral therewith in the present an hodimeut.

The drum balancing structure comprises a plurality of circularly arranged pockets 22 on a circle concentric with the axis of drum 1-3. These pockets are liquid-retaining during drum rotation and preferably are selfemptying when the drum is rotating slowly or is stopped. The pockets 22 here shown are somewhat C-sha'ped in section as viewed in Fig. 1 with anopening 22a in each pocket opening axially away from the" drum and contiguous to a wall 23 of a U-shaped pocket 24 which is radially inside of and contiguous to the series of pockets 22. In the present construction, the series of pockets 22 is formed between the vertically extending wall 13b of the drum and a parallel outer wall 226. The outermost limit of the pockets radially speaking is formed by an imperforate cylindricalwall 13 which is in line with the outside wall of the drum generally. The radially innermost wall 23 is imperforate' and has been mentioned previously. Referring to Fig. 2, it will be noted that the pockets 22 form a continuous ring around the entire circle except that they are divided by radially extending partition walls 25. In the present embodiment, this forms six pockets 22. T he opening 22a is therefore substantially continuous around the circle.

annular non-liquid-retaining area is provided on the front vertical drum head which is axially opposite a pair of fixed jets 26. This annular area is shown as a single continuous pocket 24 U-shaped in section in Figs. 1 and 2. This pocket is formed, as previously mentioned,- between the cylindrical walls and 23, and the rear wall of the pocket is formed by the vertical drum head 13b. The jets 26 are provided with a suitable supply of liquid under pressure through line 27 controlled by valve 28. The jets direct a finely controlled stream of liquid indicated at 26a generally parallel to the axis of the drum and inside of but fairly close to the cylindrical wall 23 when the drum is balanced as shown in Fig.- 1. Obviously, the liquid from the jets :26 will not be held in the U-shaped pockets 24 butwill either run to the lowest point of the pocket and then outwardly or, at higher speeds, the liquid will be thrown centrifugally outwardly from the'lip of the wall 23'.

An alternate form of the annular non-liquid-retaining areais shown in Fig. 3 which is exactly like the portion of Fig. 1 indicated except for the difierence now to be described. The pocket 24 is shown as closed at the axially forward end by a radially extending wall 24a so that the stream of liquid 26a from the jets 26 strike the wall 24a when the drum is in balanced condition and is deflected radially outwardly past the opening 22a with practically none of itgoing into that opening 221:.

The preferred location of the jets or nozzles 26 is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, with two of these nozzles in fixed position, located diametrically opposite on a horizontal plane through the center of the drum 1B. Thisavoids the possibility of having liquid introduced into th balance pockets 22 due to any downward deflection which .balanced condition continues, the drum might occur in a loaded basket, which could happen if the nozzles were in a vertical plane.

The operation of my invention as thus described is as follows. When the basket or drum 13 is balanced, it is in concentric position inside the housing with the liquid jets 26a just radially inside of the cylindrical wall 23. Substantially'no liquid gets into the pockets 22 at this time and no liquid gets into the drum itself. After the drum is loaded, the clothes commonly are unevenly distributed inside of the drum and the drum becomes unbalanced as indicated in Fig. 2, causing the heavy side to swing radially outwardly. If this un- 13 will gyrate in a small orbit O (Fig. 2) about the axis of shaft 14 indicated at C, the gyrating basket or drum center being marked at B. With any normal type of support, even if it is comparatively rigid, there will be at least 'a small gyration of the basket; so that if a sharp jet 26a is usedclosely adjacent wall 23 and if this wall or ring is relatively thin, then the jet will bevintroduced into the balance pockets 22, even with slight drum eccentricity. However, for the sake of clarity, the wall sections have been indicated heavier than they would be if drawn to scale, and the amount of basket deviation has been amplified in Fig. 2 to correspond.

During unbalanced rotation, the drum being heavy toward the left'hand, as viewed in Fig. 2, the drum will bedeflected toward the heavy side, and the cylindrical ,wall, 23 on the right hand, or light side, as viewed in Fig. 2, has moved across the path of the liquid jet there, so that liquid is being introduced into the balancing pockets 22 on the light side of the drum. On the left hand side, as viewed in Fig. 2, the heavy side of the drum has caused the wall 23 to be moved farther .toward the left away from the jet26a, and liquid continues to go into the annular space 24, from which it isthrown out as described previously without affecting the balance of the drum. As the lighter side of the drum moves around the same, the relationships shown in Fig.- 2 are reversed, but the balancing pockets 22 on the light side are still in line with one of the jets 26a, while the heavier side of the drum still receives liquid into thepocket 24. It can be seen that the eccentric path of the boundary ring 23 will, depending upon the magnitude of'the unbalance, usually admit some'liquid to the pockets 22 joining the particular pocket 22 which is at the point of greatest unbalance, so that if the unbalance is beyond the capacity of one pocket 22 to remedy, the neighboring pockets will function in a similar fashion. When suflicient counterbalance fluid has entered thepockets 22 to cause the basket to become balanced, it again returns to a centered position, with the jets 26a both directed into the pocket 24. The liquid .in balance pockets 22' is retained there by centrifugal force until the drum is slowed down at the end .of the operation, at which time the liquid quickly empties out through the openings 22a.

The liquid jets may be turned on shortly after the basket has been started and may be turned oif before rotation has ceased. It is generally preferable, however, to operate these jets only during the first part of the liquid extracting period in a clothes extracting operation. In this preferable operation, the jets are turned off shortly before the critical speed is reached, for the reason that in an unbalanced rotating body, the point of. unbalance and the point of maximum eccentricity coincide, only at the lower speeds. As speed increases, the eccentric point lags farther behind the point of heaviness until, at critical speed, they are separated by 90 degrees, and above this speed the drum begins to rotate with the light side radially outermost. Obviously, this would, if the basket were still considerably unbalanced at the higher speed, cause the liquid jets to start going into the wrong pockets 22. It is thus desirable to have an acceleration period of proper duration to allow the .drum to be brought into substantial balance before the critical speed is reached. q

I have conceived various modifications of my invention, in addition to that shown in Fig. 3. For instance, the six balance pocketsshown at the front of the drum, could readily be three or four narrower, extending axially back into the basket.

While two liquid jets have been described as my preferred form of invention, it will be understood by those skilled in this art that more or less than two jets could be used, provided they are so spaced that they project liquid into the balancing pockets only when these pockets are thrown radially of the rotating container.

What I claim is: V

l. In combination, a drum rotatably mounted on a generally horizontally extending axis and having a vertically extending head, said drum having a resilient mounting permitting radial shifting when the load in said drum is unbalanced, circularly arranged pockets carried by said drum, said pockets being liquid-retaining during drum rotation, there being an outwardly directed opening communicating with each pocket, said openings being equidistant radiallyfrom said axis, an annular portion of said drum non-liquid-retaining during drum rotation, said annular portion being radially inside of said pocket openings, and fixed liquid jet means generally axially directed toward said annular portion during substantially balanced drum rotation, whereby unbalanced drum rotation will cause said pocket openings on the lighter loaded side of said drum to move into line with said jet means and thereby add liquid load to said pockets on that side only.

2. In combination, a drum having heads at opposite ends thereof, .a generally horizontally extending shaft rigidly secured to one of said heads, said shaft having a resilient mounting permitting radial shifting when the load in said drum is unbalanced, the other of said heads being generally vertically extending, means for causing rotation of said shaft, circularly arranged pockets carried by saiddrum on said vertical head thereof, said pockets being liquid-retaining during drum rotation, there being an outwardly directed opening communicating with each pocket, said openings being equidistant radially from said-shaft an annular portion of said vertical drumhead non-liquid-retaining during drum rotation, said annular portion being radially inside of said pocket openings, and fixed liquid jet means generally axially directed toward said annular portion during substantially balanced drum rotation, whereby unbalanced drum rotation will cause said pocket openings on the lighter loaded side of said drum to move into line with said jet means and thereby add liquid load to said pockets on that side only.

3. In combination, a drum rotatably mounted on a generally horizontally extending axis and having a vertically extending head, said drum having a resilient mounting permitting radial shifting when the load in said drum is unbalanced, circularly arranged pockets carriedby said drum on said vertical head thereof, said pockets being liquid-retaining during drum rotation, there being an outwardly directed opening communicat- ,lIlgyWllZh each pocket, said openings being equidistant nected end of said drum, and fixed liquid jet means generally axially directed toward said recess opening during substantially balanced drum rotation, whereby unbalanced drum rotation will cause said pocket openings on the lighter loaded side of said drum to move into line with said jet means and thereby add liquid load to said pockets on that side only.

4. In combination, a drum having a closed head'and hollow ribs outwardly on the heavier side 5 an open head, a generally horizontal shaft connected with said closed head for rotating said drum, said shaft having a resilient mounting; permitting radial shifting when the load in said drum is unbalanced, there being a feed opening through said open head communicating with the central portion of said drum and concentric with said shaft, removable means for closing said opening, there being an annular portion of said head radially outside of said opening, an annular pocket U- shape in section on said open head, said pocket opening axially away from said drum, a series of balancing pockets on said open head circularly arranged adjacent and radially outside of said U-shape pocket, said balancing pockets being generally C-shape in section with the opening in each pocket opening axially away from said drum and contiguous to the radially outer wall of said U-shape pocket, said openings being equidistant radially from said shaft, and two fixed liquid jets substantially on a horizontal diameter of said drum and facing said U-shape pocket opening during substantially balanced drum rotation, said jets directed generally parallel to the axis of rotation of said drum and toward the open head of said drum, whereby unbalanced drum rotation will cause said balancing pocket openings on the lighterloaded side of said drum to move radially toward the axis of drum rotation into line with one of said jets and thereby add liquid load to said balancing pockets on that side only.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,463,801 Page Mar. 8, 1949 2,534,267 Kahn Dec. 19, 1950 2,534,269 Kahn Dec. 19, 1950 2,584,942 Thearle Feb. 5, 1952 

